Paper Flowers
by Chaotic Demon
Summary: This is the story of the infamous Paper Ninja of Konoha.
1. Shadows on the Wall

Er… Hi… I know. An OC is the main character. But I wanted to try to write a story like this where the OC is actually believable and doesn't turn into a Mary Sue. Also, my brother told me to write this. And I need to work on my fight scenes as well. This is basically a challenge to myself so please just bear with me.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. But I do own the girl.

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She shivered at the sensation of her bare shoulders against the cold stone as she huddled further into the corner of the dark alley. 'How long have I been here?' she wondered. It had to have been a couple of hours at least, for it was already dark. She grimaced in apprehension. She hated the dark. Even though she was almost twelve she still had to sleep with all the lights on. Her mother had tried to get her to use a nightlight, but that had only made the shadows worse. As if on queue, the shadows on the dark alley seemed to shift and contort themselves into images which the small girl would rather not see. She clenched her eyes shut in an effort to make them go away and shivered again.

She didn't need to see her reflection to know that she looked horrible. Her long brown hair was coming out of her high ponytail and was probably well on its way to becoming a rat's nest. The knees of her pants and her long-sleeved shirt were torn. Dirt was ground into her clothes and smeared over her skin. Cuts, old and new, decorated her hands and knees. Overall, she felt as dirty as she looked.

Her head pounded, both out of fear and dehydration. She opened her eyes to see if the monsters were gone, but the shadows appeared fiercer than normal. She inhaled sharply and almost forgot to exhale. Her hands searched blindly for something -anything- to calm her nerves. After a few moments her fingers found a small scrap of square paper. Her fingers automatically started folding it with precise, crisp creases. It seemed to help, if only a little. If nothing else, it kept her from noticing the figure entering the alley.

Once he spotted her he crouched down next to her. "Hey." He said this softly, but it served to bring the girl out of her horrid fascination with the shadows. She looked at him with wide green eyes and felt herself relax a little at the sight of him. His bright blue eyes and his vibrant yellow hair appeared to be incredibly radiant in the darkness and seemed to chase the shadows away. "There you are," he continued, "Your parents have been worried sick about you! It's a good thing Iruka-sensei asked me to help find you. God knows Kakashi-sensei would have been to busy reading Ero-sannin's new book…" He rambled on, but the girl didn't hear what he was saying. She looked down at her scraped knees in shame. She was nothing but trouble for everyone. Tears pricked at her eyes and her body shook in an effort to keep it in. The stranger seemed to notice, for he trailed off in the middle of a sentence about ramen. "Er… Are you ok?" He brushed the bangs out of her face. She shakily shook her head and launched herself into his arms. It all came spilling out. He listened quietly to her story punctured with sobs. He sighed when he noticed she had cried herself to sleep. As the young man was lifting the girl to take her home something fell from her hand. He bent down to retrieve it and blinked. It was a perfectly folded origami flower.

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Bwahahahahahahahahaha! I finished the first chapter! I'll give you all one guess as to who the guy is!


	2. The Curse of the Squeaky Shoes

Yay! The second chapter! Interesting that the first chapter had 34 hits, one story alert, and yet no reviews, isn't it?

Disclaimer: I don't own anyone or anything which shows up in the original show.

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Midori looked at herself in the mirror and sighed. This was the third day since the incident with the blond stranger. She felt her cheeks heat up at the thought of him. He was definitely handsome, even though he was significantly older then she was. She hoped to see him again, but that would be difficult because she had never learned his name. Still… She let out a lovesick sigh before looking at herself in the mirror.

Her hair had been tangled beyond repair so her mother had hacked the majority of it off. Now it barely touched her shoulders. As it was now too short to stay completely back in a ponytail, it was currently done in two low pigtails just behind her ears. Her mother had tried to make the best of the situation and had dragged her daughter out shopping for a new wardrobe to complete the make over. "After all," her mother had said, "you can't wear those clothes when you become a ninja." That was why Midori was now wearing black capris, a gray tank top, fingerless fishnet gloves, and a brand new pair of squeaky, blue ninja sandals. It was also why she felt anxiety growing in her stomach.

Today was the day of the graduation exams. If she passed she would only have to endure two tormentors instead of an entire class of them. Fun. She could only hope that her Jounin-sensei wouldn't be evil. On the other hand, if she failed the test she would have to stay behind for another year and endure the humiliation of once again being worse than everyone else. "I wonder which is the lesser of the two evils,' she muttered.

She sighed again, this time out of resignation, before heading out the door towards the academy, wincing at her squeaky shoes.

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It wasn't long before she reached her destination. She gulped lightly before sliding open the door to her classroom. Her eyes nervously searched the room before landing on one Hekate Hyuuga. She winced slightly. He was her main tormentor here and was much worse than anyone else. He hadn't noticed her yet so she tried to get to her seat. However…

Squeak! "Oi! Higashikunimaru!" She froze and silently cursed her new sandals with the passion of a thousand burning suns. "Hey! Are you deaf or something?" She winced once more and turned to him. She noticed he was wearing his usual attire of a black t-shirt and beige pants. His blue-black hair was gathered into a long braid. The usual smirk which adorned Hekate's face disappeared for a moment to be replaced with a look of astonishment. He blinked a couple of times before the smirk slid back on. "As unbelievable as it seems, you actually look good for once." Midori blinked. That was it? Usually it was a lot worse. She gave him a slightly weird look and made her way over to her seat and sat down next to Sangure Akui. He was leaning back in his chair with his feet on the desk and his eyes closed. Midori eyed his ripped fishnet shirt and scruffy black hair with a bit of nervousness.

Sangure cracked one dark blue eye open to look at her. "Hey," he said with a cheeky grin, "You're pretty hot!" Midori froze opened mouthed, gaping at her classmate. A few other students stared at them and Hekate, unnoticed by Midori, stared sending him death glares. Sangure, however, just winked at her and returned to his former position. Her face flushed and she hurriedly turned her head in the opposite direction.

Just then Iruka-sensei walked in through the door. As if he sensed that something was wrong he stared at his class for a moment before shaking his head and calling the first student to be tested.

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Midori stood in front of the target with a shuriken in her hand. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She looked at the target with a bit of apprehension. She took another deep breath and aimed. However, when she was taking a step forward to throw the weapon she somehow tripped and landed face first in the dirt, the shuriken going in the opposite direction of where she was aiming. She looked up just in time to see Iruka dodge it. She groaned and put her face back in the dirt.

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Twelve kunai and several shuriken later found Midori having just barely managed to throw most of the weapons and have them actually hit somewhere on the target. Iruka, having decided that was a satisfactory job, made some scribbles on his clipboard and handed Midori something. When she saw what it was her eyes lit up and her teacher smiled. Midori resisted the urge to jump up and down screaming. She had done it. She was officially a ninja.

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(sniff) Don't you just love happy endings? Next time Midori meets her teammates and her Jounin-sensei.


End file.
